Review of Cars 3 (2017) by Carfan1999 — 01 Aug 2017

The best thing about Cars 3 is that it is a massive improvement over Cars 2. In fact, there’s no connection between Cars 3 and Cars 2, this one only flashes back to the first Cars. It’s as if Cars 2 didn’t exist. You could watch Cars, skip Cars 2, watch Cars 3, and you wouldn’t miss a thing. As usual, the animation is beautiful and it shows how much technology has advanced between 2006 (when the first one came out) and now. While the first movie took place in a mostly western environment, this one takes place in a mostly southern environment. The characters are also fantastic. McQueen goes from the immature young racer in the first film to where he’s now older and is getting beat by younger racers. It’s hard for him to accept that he’s no longer the youngest kid on the block and may no longer be able to compete. It goes to the theme of where a person who’s older and has a lot of experience in a certain field is threatened to be overtaken by someone who’s younger and is better with technology. Perhaps a few of you here can relate to that.

Going back to the characters, another standout is Cruz Ramirez, a young car who basically becomes Lightning’s trainer. I won’t go into more detail, but she’s great. Doc Hudson, Lightning’s mentor is also fine. I won’t say what role the character has, but the unique thing his that he’s voiced by Paul Newman, like in the first film. The thing is that Newman died in 2008, so Pixar decided to use archival recordings of his voice, instead of finding a different actor to fill the role. All of the other original characters (including Tow Mater) make an appearance, but their role in the movie is very minor.

As far as the story goes, it’s fine, and there are several exciting race scenes and more dramatic scenes. It’s not as complex as other Pixar movies, but it works. However, Cars 3 lacks the emotional gut punch of other Pixar movies, the 2nd act is rather disorganized, and the ending is overly convenient. It’s nowhere near Pixar’s best and I’d argue Cars 3 isn’t as good as the original Cars. But it’s worlds better than Cars 2 and overall I’d give this a 70%. Overall, Cars 3 isn’t great, but it’s definitely worth watching. If you haven’t seen any of the Cars films, I’d recommend seeing Cars 1 and then Cars 3. Both are filled with fun and have heart.